Esther_loves_figs and JC is a hydrangea Papa

"Oh my God! are those... FIGS?!?"

Esther loves figs.

Specifically, black mission figs. I've actually never seen someone get so excited about figs. Its extremely cute how much energy flows from her eyes, when someone mentions figs. Fresh figs, specifically, but she'll happily take the dried version at the drop of a hat, too. So, you can imagine her excitement when we found last fall that my dad had received a fig tree from someone who was moving away, and wanted to find a good home for it. Someone, like my pop, to give Mr. Fig Tree that good home it deserved so it could continue to produce its figgy goodness.

While Esther was in Connecticut to do some test hair + makeup runs, I went to my hometown to check on a number of things, not the least of which was whether or not Mr. F. Tree has, like the majority of soggy New Englanders at this time, the affliction known Seasonal Affective Disorder, or if it is deciding to look on the sunnier side of photosynthesis, and started to push out some baby figs.

Good news, all.

It has!

..see?

You can make out the wee little green bumps emerging from the base of the stems, near the leaves. In the soon-to-be-here summer heat, these little nubs will mature to plump purpley/black fruits with the sweet creamy pinkish seedy flesh that is on Esther's 'if I could only take one kind of food with me to a desert island' list.

So, this is a very long winded way of saying, 1. you can, in fact, grow the California favored fig tree in Acushnet, Massachusetts, and 2. be on the lookout for figs in the fare lovingly prepared by Gourmet Galley, even if just served fresh during the cocktail hour.

Of course, I took advantage of the trip home today to check on how the hydrangea were dealing with the weather, too. They seem to be a touch 'leggy', meaning that they look just a little stretched out, like they are searching, eagerly stretching for a peak at the sun.

But today, yeah, they are digging days like today. ~80F, a nice breeze, the roots still tucked away in the spring-like cool and moist soil. Though the nearby oak-leaf hydrangea have bees buzzing through their full glory, the flower buds on the PeeGees haven't even been set, but, don't worry they are just biding their time. I can tell. This is actually quite fortunate for us, as that means that they'll be fresher, cleaner and brighter for the late summer cutting for our day on 09.06.09

The mass grouping that me and my pop created last spring from the 5 yr old (or is it 6 years now?) rooted cuttings I started are looking great. I'm feeing very confident that we'll have more than enough for the planned flower arrangements.

Take a look:

...and for no other reason than to cheer up your day, another picture of some bright gloriosa daisies that happily reseed themselves every year in my parents' garden.

Cheese & Flowers & Birthday Cake

More quality time in the car today...

Today is my mom's bday (Happy Birthday Mom!) so we decided to multitask and get a little wedding planning accomplished while we were in CT.

We planned to meet w/ Leah, our florist, today for a fun little mockup in Marlborough, CT. Since the stars always seem to be in alignment for JC & I, we had the opportunity to visit nearby Cato Corner Farm for a cheese tasting. Anna, our caterer, recommended Cato Corner for great local cheeses to serve at our cocktail hour. They are a small farm in Colchester, CT with only 40 cows yet they service some of the top restaurants in the country including Daniel, Tocqueville, and Per Se in NYC. (Per Se is owned by Thomas Keller...owner of the ever-impressive The French Laundry in Napa, CA at which we had the luxury of dining this past fall.)

Needless to say, the cheese was amazing. We tasted some young and aged varieties and the complexities and depth of flavor are distinct in the aged cheeses. Delicious. I can pretty much guarantee you'll enjoy!

Next it was on to a couple hours of flowers, and vases, and curly willow...oh my! Leah is so helpful and SO PATIENT when it comes to JC & I. First of all, I have absolutely zero creative vision so, unless you're showing me a full arrangement of florals, I have no idea what you're talking about. Second of all, JC has lots of opinions and ideas so he doesn't do the typical "glazed-over" man thing that florists usually see. End of story, we're a handful. Add in my sister Heidi, MOH, who came along for the ride (and cheese)...Leah had her work cut out for her today. We reviewed the various vessel options, corsages, bouquets, colors, etc. So much detail, but visualizing some of the arrangements and discussing our options gives us more and more confidence that Leah will do a fantastic job for our wedding.


We finished the day at Mohegan Sun, for mom's birthday dinner at Todd English's Tuscany. A little wine, some tasty flatbreads, and fallen chocolate cake w/ my fam made for a relaxing end to a busy day. Then it was back in the car for more quality time...

We have our Florist

I have to say that wedding flowers is the one area JC & I had absolutely no idea how to budget for. How much do flowers cost? Who knows?? Apparently they can cost A LOT.

JC & I have some grand ideas about what we'd like to display at the wedding to keep with the "natural" theme we have going. We'd like to do some cool arrangements using grasses, herbs, and foliage but we also plan to have some beautiful bright flowers as well. JC has transplanted about 30 pg hydrangeas from his little garden plot in the city to his parents' house, so we're going to use lots of these big gorgeous blooms.

We really only interviewed 2 florists in CT: one is pretty well known in Mystic and does lots of events all over the state; the other was referred to us by my cousin Marsha (making her 2nd appearance in this blog!). When we got their proposals, I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if they were $1000 or $10000. Fortunately they weren't $10k, but they were more than we wanted to spend on flowers when there are other priorities (like food!) to focus on.

We decided to work with Leah, Marsha's referral, from It's So Ranunculus in Marlborough, CT. She was so cute and fun and excited about our ideas when we met w/ her. She's also very willing to work w/ any budget and is planning a "mock design" consultation for us because I have absolutely NO creative vision! I'm excited to watch her play w/ flowers and foliage to see what our arrangements are going to look like. Watch for more posts with pictures soon!